The New York Jets are on the road on Sunday for game 4 of their 2026 campaign. They face the Chicago Bears. The Bears are 2-1 on the year. They are coming off a dominant 27-7 shellacking of the Philadelphia Eagles last week.
In previewing this matchup, Bill Zimmerman, Deputy Manager at Windy City Gridiron, was kind enough to answer a few questions about the 2026 Chicago Bears.
1. The Bears will likely be without starting quarterback Caleb Williams available against the Jets. Case Keenum led the Bears to a big win over the Philadelphia Eagles last week without Williams, but Tyson Bagent could be healthy and ahead of Keenum on the depth chart against the Jets. Who do you think should start, who do you think will start, and can the Bears offense continue to have success with backup quarterbacks?
The story of Case Keenum from Monday Night Football is truly amazing. I was completely caught up in the human-interest angle of it. But I think you have to take what Ben Johnson said after the game at face value: “There’s a reason we broke camp with Tyson as our QB2.”
The Keenum story is awesome, but I think after having 60 minutes of tape to study, I’m not sure another 60 minutes of Keenum will work unless Ben Johnson massively changes the game plan. I think Tyson Bagent should start, and I think Bagent will start.
As for continued success with backup QBs, why not? I think Ben Johnson is an offensive genius. I am in awe of watching what he does every week. He actually plays chess. He set up explosive plays in the second half with his running plays in the first half. He is a Monet. I think he can adjust his scheme and have success in Bagent.
If Caleb Williams is out for the year, I think Ben Johnson will run out of magic beans, but I strongly think he can do it in 2 to 4 weeks.
2. The Bears have held each of their last two opponents to under 10 points and under 260 yards of offense. What have been the keys to that kind of dominant defensive play and is it sustainable?
The defense has looked better the last two weeks, but it’s still the same defense that gave up 37 to Carolina in week one. Here’s where I stand on the Chicago Bears defense. It’s not very good, but their defensive play caller, Dennis Allen, is elite.
The Viking game is difficult to analyze. Wet doesn’t describe what that game is. The rain was steady for the entire game and it also rained a ton before the game. The conditions were terrible and I think the conditions were too much for the offenses to overcome. Carson Wentz struggled to get the ball down the field, and that allowed the Bears defense to excel on third down.
But the defense’s performance against the Eagles was really special. They completely shut down the Eagles offense in the second half, and Allen called a phenomenal game.
This defense is hard to see where they are. In the secondary, Jaylon Johnson, Tyrique Stevenson, and Cam Lewis allow about a 130.0 passer rating against when they are targeted. However, when teams target rookies Dillon Thieneman or Malik Muhammad, they barely complete a pass; their target passer rating against is at 30.0.
The defensive line is supposed to be the weakest unit on the team, but thanks to Grady Jarrett turning back the clock for a few years and Dayo Odeyingbo creating interior pressure, it’s been decent. Will that last? Will they come back in the first week? Your guess is as good as mine.
For this defense to be successful, Dennis Allen will need to continue to call fantastic plays, and they will need to create turnovers; they managed to create three last week against Philly.
3. Can you give us an overview of what the 2026 Bears draft class looks like so far, and what you expect from them as the year goes on?
Overall, you have to be happy with the draft class, but not everything went well. As I mentioned before, Dillon Thieneman, their first-round pick, starts at safety and looks the part. He will be a 10-year safety in the league. Malik Muhammad, a fourth-round CB from Texas, really bolstered the secondary with some solid plays while other CBs struggled. They have been a huge boost to a defense that desperately needs it.
As for the other picks, DT Jordan van den Berg, their 6th-round pick, is turning heads in the preseason; even Brian Baldinger did a breakdown on how good he was playing. However, in the regular season, van den Berg was out there for 54 snaps and recorded one tackle. Teams handled him well.
Second-round pick C Logan Jones has yet to play, as he is Garrett Bradbury’s backup. Third-round pick Zavion Thomas has been on the field a bit, but we haven’t seen much yet. He looks good returning kicks, and he has tremendous speed. It looks like Ben Johnson will find some spots for him in the regular season to get an explosive game, but he’s not there yet.
Their other pick, TE Sam Roush, was awful. He was the main guy so they could run 13 men, but he was bad on so many levels. He threw a touchdown pass that would have given them the win against the Vikings; he also missed a block on a FG attempt that resulted in a blocked kick. Last week, the Bears had an amazing opportunity to bring the ball down to the 1 against the Eagles on a punt, and he caught the ball with his foot in the end zone resulting in a touchback. He’s a mess. I hope he gets better soon.
4. Every team has a player or two who may be relatively unfamiliar to fans of other teams but is known as an unsung hero by his own team’s fans. Who are the unsung heroes of the Bears? If possible give us a man on each side of the ball.
I think the Bears offense has some names that most football fans know. But I think the unsung hero of the offense is TE Cole Kmet. Kmet has been a solid TE in the league for years, but with the drafting of Colston Loveland and Ben Johnson’s offense, Kmet’s role has changed. He was used as FB; he does a lot of dirty work at TE, and he will leak and get used occasionally in the passing game. He’s an important part of the offense that doesn’t show up on the stat sheet much anymore.
Defensively, I’ve mentioned quite a few names. But one name I didn’t mention was Austin Booker. I don’t know if Booker is an unsung hero, but he is an important piece on the defense. He plays most of the snaps on the side opposite Montez Sweat (by far their best DL), so Booker needs to complement Sweat. When he plays well, he elevates the entire defensive front. Last week Booker had a forced concussion; the week before, he had a sack. If Booker can make 1 or 2 big plays in a game, it changes the outlook of the defense.
5. If you were an opposing head coach, how would you attack this Bears team on offense and defense?
Defensively, the Bears struggled to stop the run. I’ll make sure I can establish the run, and once that’s done, I’ll use play action and pick off the CBs, especially Tyrique Stevenson. Dennis Allen will get creative and use blitzes and stunts to generate pressure so the QB needs to watch for those blitzes and try to attack the hole in the defense before the pressure gets home.
How to stop the Bears offense? Well, the rain certainly did the trick in the second week. I would have made it rain. I’m kidding, obviously, but I don’t think there’s a straight-forward way to beat the Bears offense because Ben Johnson is that good. He is smarter than me so whatever I say, he already knows. But this offense goes hand in hand with how the offensive line goes. I will make sure the offensive line is unbalanced by the defense. When the OL plays well, the offense hums. Get the offensive line to miss blocks at the second level, defensive calls can give you a good one-on-one matchup against tight ends (Flores did that well in week two), and disrupt the offense’s rhythm.